‘Not one single ounce of quit’

Published
12:00 am CDT, Monday, March 31, 2014

It was a game, a week and a season the Alton Redbirds hockey team will never forget. As the final seconds of their game ticked off the clock at Ralston Arena Friday, the team, its fans - as well as some extra supporters - celebrated.

For a few, it may have been simply the celebration of a great comeback and a well-earned 9-7 victory over Stoneman Douglas High in their final game of the USA Hockey National High School Tournament. But for the legion of parents, players, coaches and fans who have followed the AHS skaters the past two years, it was much more.

It was a celebration of a season that saw the Redbirds go undefeated in the regular season and claim regular-season the championship Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association North Division. It was also about showing USA Hockey officials that Alton indeed was worthy of its at-large berth at the national tournament.

It was also about showing the rest of the MVCHA that they deserved to be there and that they could compete with the best high school hockey teams in the country.

“I’ve never been any prouder of a team than I am of this group,” Alton coach Larry Thatcher said. “We thought we had a shot at being a good team this season, but it was the players who proved it. They stepped up game after game.”

And it was about a fallen teammate.

“This one was for Jason Klope,” Alton coach Larry Thatcher said. “He’s been with us, in our hearts and on our minds for a long time.”

Klope, a former Redbirds player, was killed in an automobile wreck in December of 2012. The team dedicated the rest of that season, as well as this season, to their friend.

“There wasn’t a moment that (Klope) wasn’t with us,” Thatcher said.

The Redbirds weren’t without their share of stumbles along the way. They fell to rival Edwardsville in three games in the MVCHA Class 2A finals. And they dropped their first two games at the national tournament. That same North Royalton squad later handed Alton a 6-2 defeat in the second round of pool play.

But Thatcher’s faith in his team never wavered.

“Not one single ounce of quit in these kids,” he said. “Not one ounce.”

That showed in the final game together on Friday against Stoneman Douglas High from Parkland, Fla., a team some thought had a shot at the national championship going into the tournament.

Alton came up just a goal shy in the opener, falling to Lake Central, Ind. 4-3. That game served notice the Redbirds were no pushovers.

Stoneman Douglas, which had downed North Royalton 8-2 in its opener, started that last game against Alton as if its tournament survival depended on it - which it did. A victory or tie would have meant the Eagles would advance to the Saturday quarterfinals as the Pool D winners. They led 5-2 after the first period and had to be feeling good about their chances of playing yet another game.

But the Redbirds had their own agenda. They stormed back to tie the score 6-6 heading into the final period, took the lead in the third and put a big exclamation point on the game - and their season - with an empty-net goal by Kain Henson with 42 seconds remaining.

Austin Rauscher, Jeremy Sands and Jason Steiner each scored two goals in that final game for the Redbirds. Besides Henson, other Alton goals came from Jake Cunningham and Allan Bower.

Overall, Rauscher was Alton’s top scorer in the tournament with four goals and three assists in the three games. Steiner had a goal and four assists, Cunningham a goal and two assists, Henson a goal and two assists and Sands had two goals. Byrd, Ben Drake and Bower each had a goal and an assist. Nicholas Bosoluke had an assist.

Tyler St. Peters stopped 27 of the 37 shots on goal he faced in three games and 79.50 minutes. Mitchell Klug played 22.5 minutes in goal for the Redbirds, made 28 saves and got the win in goal in the final contest.